A healing touch
by RebeccaBlackLupin
Summary: As a hero is rediscovered, can Hermione help him move on from the horrors of his past? Hermione will have to fight with everything she has to help him, but will she be able to keep her and those around her happy?


"Miss Granger, I've left the new case notes from Hilary on your desk, and Mr Potter would like you to take a look at James when you get a second. He's in room 14. Want a coffee?", Hermione's new assistant breathlessly informed Hermione as she came out of the Janus Thickney ward.

"Mocha please, if you have time. And call me Hermione Melanie, for the hundredth time. We're going to be working together an awful lot, and I would rather you called me just Hermione. Anyway, would you let Harry know I'll be there in 5 minutes? I can't believe Hilary just walked out. Not very helpful. Ah well, nothing I can do about it. Thanks a lot, Melanie" Hermione said as she smiled at her young assistant, instantly feeling her age. Hermione was only 27, and had begun training as a healer, specialising in long term curses, a year after the Final Battle. Her handiwork on the battlefield at Hogwarts had been the reason there hadn't been a higher death rate, and many of her patients were people she had known from the second war, who had not been as lucky as her, although she still felt the marks of the battle. The pale skin of her face was marred by a thin white scar across one cheek, where a death eater had managed to hit her with a mild curse, but her long hair was curly and highlighted with golden streaks, although it had never lost its tendency to frizz.

Hermione took a deep breath to calm herself, and poked her head around the doorway of one of her favourite patient's room, smiling to herself at the sight of Lavender sleeping peacefully, for once. Lavender Brown had been attacked with a particularly nasty memory-removing charm in the Final Battle, and had then been attacked by Fenrir Greyback, giving her a nasty scar on her throat and on her face, and leaving her mentally unstable, not remembering any of her life before being moved to St Mungo's and night terrors leaving her unable to sleep. Her and Hermione had become very close in the eight years Hermione had trained and worked as a healer, and it was the need to help people like Lavender that had drawn Hermione to work as a long term curse specialist. Although she adored her work, it was incredibly hard seeing her friends and allies unable to care for themselves and spending their lives in a hospital, although her ward had been completely revamped after the war, to give the injured war heroes their own space and plenty of facilities in the place they had no choice but to live in. Due to the intensity and amount of time that each patient needed to be given, there were four healers on the long term spell damage ward, with only three patients per healer, but Hermione, although the youngest, was in charge, having proven that she had a knack for both dealing with patients and not stopping until she had reduced the damage a spell had created.

Hermione was responsible for Lavender Brown, Oliver Wood, who had been cursed with a stronger version of the cruciatus curse which had resulted in Oliver suffering from intense pain and seizures if stressed, angry or upset, and Luna Lovegood who had been hit with a confringo curse, and suffered major burns, by a Death Eater searching for revenge, but she was also responsible for the whole ward. Hermione headed to her quarters at the end of the ward. The hospital had built an extension onto the ward, allowing Hermione to have both her office and her home right next to the ward, where she could always be around if needed. Her office was accessible to staff, but her living area, consisting of a living room, kitchen, bathroom, small library and three bedrooms, was private, with easy access by Floo network.

As she entered her living room, Hermione heard a coo from behind the doorway and grinning, entered the room to find her baby daughter giggling and playing with Katie Bell, her nanny, and one of Hermione's best friends, who instantly handed over Nymph to her mother. "Mama! Kat 'n' me make bithcuits!" lisped the pretty little redhead, with the big brown eyes that Hermione saw every day in the mirror. "Did you little one? Guess what? You can give one to dada, because he's coming this afternoon. Does that sound good?", Hermione smiled at the big grin and nod she got from Nymph, but then put her down to play with her bear. Kat smiled at the little girl and her mother, asking "Is Ron really coming this afternoon 'Mione? He hasn't been in a week, and I don't know. His work is getting even more unpredictable and it's all he seems to do since you two split up. I'm worried that Nymph is gonna start getting more attached to Neville. He spends more time with her."

"He only spends time with her because of Luna, Katie. He never leaves the ward, I mean, the poor guy needs some downtime, and Nymph loves seeing him. I guess it's Ron's choice how often he sees her. Anyway, I need to get back to the ward now. Staying for dinner? I'll cook?" mentioned Hermione, already giving her baby a kiss and heading for the door to go and see Harry.

Harry, as Melanie had said, was in room 14, struggling to hold a wriggling toddler and still rock the baby carrier with his foot. Hermione giggled at his messed up hair and badly rumpled robes, anticipating yet another pointless visit as a result of Harry's paranoia that his kids were constantly ill. "Harry, for the millionth time, I don't look after babies. Or James. I don't like him", stated Hermione, sticking her tongue out and smiling at the little black haired boy holding his arms up to be hugged by his Auntie 'Mione. Snuggling him onto his hip, Harry grinned sheepishly. "Well, he's acting all cute so he won't get looked at, but he keeps coughing. Like, really bad. Me and Ginny are worried. Don't look at me like that! Alright, so she's not worried. So not the point. I am and surely I'm allowed to have my son checked?" Hermione smiled and gave James a quick look over, finding not much to worry about. Sending Harry and the two boys on their way, Hermione headed back to her office, to get on with reading her case notes.


End file.
